


Pandora’s Jar, or, How Zeus’ Petty Nature Led to the Release of All Evils into the World

by Noremac



Category: Greek and Roman Mythology
Genre: But here it is, Gen, Pandora's Box, and then replaced because it wasn't that good, written for the Classics Association of New England Annual Writing Contest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-05
Updated: 2013-12-05
Packaged: 2018-01-03 14:31:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1071571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noremac/pseuds/Noremac
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Basically a rewrite of the myth of Pandora. Written for the prompt: "What Great Contests Arise from Trivial Things: Consequence in the Ancient World."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pandora’s Jar, or, How Zeus’ Petty Nature Led to the Release of All Evils into the World

It was a petty thing. Zeus was mad at Prometheus, for taking away some of the gods’ perceived power, and so decided to release everything evil into the world.  
It happened like this. One day, Prometheus was walking around on Earth when he noticed that men looked a bit cold, and had to eat disgusting raw meat. He was understandably upset about this- since, after all, men were his creation- and so decided to help them out. Without Zeus noticing, he snuck up to the sun and lit a torch from it, then brought it back to Earth. Thus men were gifted with fire.  
When Zeus found out, he was furious. He had taken fire away from men to punish them for giving him the disgusting bits of the animals they sacrificed to him, and took its return as a personal slight. He wanted to make Prometheus suffer, and started by going after his brother.  
Epimetheus, the god of afterthought, lived a fairly simple life among men. He was happy enough, but had always been a bit lonely. Therefore, to punish him, Zeus told Hephaestus to make the first woman, Pandora. She was a beautiful creature, irresistible to all men. However, she was given some more harmful traits as well. Pandora was cursed with curiosity.  
When Pandora was complete, Zeus sent her, along with a mysterious jar, to Epimetheus, with a warning to never open the jar. Against his brother’s advice, Epimetheus happily accepted her and her jar into his household, and they were soon married.  
Their lives were happy for a while. They had a couple of kids, Deucalion and Pyrrha, and the gods didn’t bother them. Soon, though, Pandora started getting bored of doing the same thing day in and day out. And when she got bored, she got curious. She knew she wasn’t supposed to open the jar- her father had told her so-but it couldn’t be that bad, could it? There might even be something good in it! Either way, she should probably open it just in case.  
So, one day, while Epimetheus was out of the house, she stole into the room in which the jar was kept and carefully unscrewed the lid. As soon as there was a crack of open space, something flew out, knocking Pandora over backwards. She yelped in alarm and scrambled back to her feet. Her husband, drawn by her cry, rushed into the room and stopped short. For there, in a swirling mass above their heads and growing larger by the second, was an amalgamation of all the evil things that the gods had been able to think of- war, famine, death, plague- and one small, bright speck, almost drowned out by the others- hope.  
And so, because of Zeus’ pettiness and ego, men die, children starve, women are forced from their homes for lack of money. All bad things in the world stem from his unwillingness to consider the needs of others.


End file.
